Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Big Lesson From Denver

Chuck, I already said I don't have a problem with Susan filling an at-large vacancy that might open up on LNC. I guess the question you raise is whether Angela has been making or seconding motions that our radical members want made/seconded but that wouldn't be by (say) Ruwart and Wrights if Angela were replaced by (say) Alicia. On that question I'll have to defer to your record-keeping and superior knowledge of the people involved.

If factional balance is so important, do you support some kind of proportional representation voting for at-large members?

The big lesson I think I learned in Denver is that NatCon delegates -- to say nothing of the broader LP membership -- care much less about ideological infighting than I had assumed from listening to the LP's blogospheric echo chamber. The 221 delegates who elected Dr. Ruwart to LNC could have easily elected a 5-person radical slate, and yet Susan only got 127 votes. The Reform Caucus allegedly took over the LP in Denver, but we could never get more than ten people to gather at any of our Denver meetings. The past and present leaders of the Reform and Radical Caucuses who ran for party office in Denver -- you, Susan, M, Alicia, Jon -- all lost.

My impression of the delegates in Denver was that they were so ideologically self-confident about the LP's principles and radicalness that they were willing to vote by communication skill and megaphone size (i.e. name recognition) instead of by ideology, whenever such a choice was presented. I can't think of any races where the opposite occurred. If LNC reads things the same way, then they may not be as worried about ideological balance as we are.